Disclaimer: Vandread is the property of Gonzo and Media Factory animation studios

Gundam SEED is the property of Sunrise and Bandai Entertainment.

Kazuki Uraki and all other OCs mentioned are owned by yours truly.

A/N: Here it is; Chapter 9 of Vandread SEED Destiny and not only is it an action-packed chapter but you get to see Kazuki's custom 105 Dagger fully upgraded and kicking serious ass. if you're the artistic sort, feel free to make some sort of fanart or trailer. As usual please leave a review to show your support and to encourage me to keep producing chapters.

Sincerely, D-I


Vandread SEED Destiny: Phase 09 – Fields of War

"Thanks for the update pal, but I think it's pretty obvious that the bad guys are winning. Well, you got me now, so you don't need to worry about a thing." He said with an arrogant tone in his voice, confident that everything was going accordingly. Ducking down into his seat, the playboy pilot began the start-up sequence for his machine. "Matthew Jameson, Buster Dagger! Taking off!" The pilot eased the controls and the pedals gently, bringing the bipedal machine into a standing position and began the march towards the fighting.

"This is Jura here, I'm good to go." The blonde haired woman had trouble getting her machine to stand at first however everything soon fell into place and had gotten a feel for the controls.

Meia, on the other hand, felt at home in the cockpit of the Mobile Suit due to the controls being similar to the Dreads before they had been engulfed by the Paksis and that it didn't feel like a coffin like the Vanguard the women had to pilot on the planet that had been harvested for blood cells. "Meia reporting, I'm heading out." she eased the Dagger L into a stand and followed Jura and their group 'leader' out to battle.

Opening – Pride by HIGH AND MIGHTY COLOR

Houses exploded into a mess of flame and debris, throwing chunks of stone, concrete and glass up and down the streets of Berlin. This destruction that began to rain over the capital city of Germany marked the beginning of a new offensive not only against Anti-Earth Alliance sentiments but also against ZAFT's efforts to put down both Atlantic Federation, Blue Cosmos and by extension Logos. On the devastated streets of the German city, gunfire skittered across walls and pavement as a lone figure dodged and manoeuvred through the ruins in an attempt to get to the headquarters of those that were against the hated conscription policies of the Eurasian Federation. Starting to feel the ill effects of the stabilisation and fortification drug to wear off, Kazuki's breathing had become laboured and his stamina being drained, this became all too apparent when a bullet from an alerted soldier had fired and managed to graze the shoulder of the Extended Combat Coordinator, even though it was only a flesh wound, the bullet had hit the wall of a building and chipped off some concrete which then embedded itself inside the injury and all the running and climbing he was doing was only helping to irritate and cause more damage inside the wound..Feeling his pursuers closing in on him, Kazuki began looking for a quick way to escape the soldiers that were on foot, unfortunately for him, the only method that was left available to him was to scale a wall at the end of a narrow street that joined onto the one he was using

Seeing that it was his only escape, the brunette bounded off a pile of rubble made of brick, mortar, and tile from a nearby building and stretched out his arm, as he reached the edge of the two and a half metre, high wall he felt the shard move inside his wound. "Nngh." He winced as the pain shot through his body, a sign that the medication would wear off and the artificially enhanced adrenalin would eventually overwhelm and corrupt his nervous system, leading to his entire body shutting down. With pain shooting through his body, he found his grip on the wall's ledge and soon felt air rush against his back however the feeling of cool air was which soon replaced by hard ground. As the brunette struggled to get to his feet he heard the click of safeties being released.

Raising his head an Earth Alliance soldier shoved an assault rifle in his face. "Get up and don't try anything funny!" The soldier demanded, as two more soldiers moved to Kazuki's side and brought him to his feet.

Above the city, explosions filled the air as missiles and green energy beams crossed the sky, as both missile and gatling trucks and mobile suits battled through the streets. "Gah! I know we trained for this Meia but we're fighting living people, not automated machines. How are we supposed to defeat them without killing them?" Jura's mobile suit moved rigidly across the battlefield, barely escaping being hit by an enemy mobile suit.

However Meia had accidentally discovered how to beat the mobile suits without killing the pilots inside when her mobile suit fell back and an enemy went in close for an attack of their own, but she instinctively reacted and drew her beam saber and disabled the main camera and followed through by cutting the Dagger L's arm off. "If you're worried about the pilots, don't aim for the cockpits and you'll do fine." she shrugged off another hostile mobile suit with her Dagger L's shield and shot the enemy's main camera out as it stumbled backwards, crushing some buildings behind it. Not long into the escalating battle, the fighting had soon started to stray further-and-further into the city

As the sound of battle grew louder and more intense, the soldiers that had detained Kazuki were growing anxious by the minute wanting to finish their 'business' as soon as possible. Unlike tanks where the can drive through walls and paths are easy to predict, Mobile Suits, on the other hand, can crush a building by simply falling on top of them and with their legs, clumsy manoeuvres prove to be hard to predict and that much more difficult to avoid. "Sir! We should hurry, sit sounds like the battle is getting close." One of the privates in the group pressed the issue of the risk involved by being close to mobile suits that were in combat.

The sergeant leading the group of the soldiers and the closest to Kazuki nodded in agreement and brought out his pistol, and looked at the sickly looking coordinator with both scorn and disgust. "Agreed, private, let's finish this traitorous Coordinator scum and head back to HQ." He barked.

Kazuki panted and fumbled at the utility belt trying to find the container for the tablets to stabilise his condition "He knew I was a Coordinator?...must have been them." He deduced that the only way that the soldiers that had him cornered, received the information about him would have likely come from Beta and Delta. "Shit...Everything is going dark...I have to...remain awake...damn it!" He cursed mentally at his current state of weakness.

The hand that he had been using to search for his medication suddenly went limp and fell to the cold, wet ground of the snow-covered German city. Even though his visual perception was fading, he could still hear the click of the safety of a pistol being removed, followed by the cocking action of a bullet being loaded into the chamber. "I have to say, that the way you look now is quite suitable. A rabid dog, lying helpless in the street waiting to die!" His voice was filled with venom, while he marched up to the brunette and placed the pistol against his temple. However the shot would never come, instead, it was the crumbling of one of the ruined buildings that surrounded the alleyway.

Turning their attention to the Dagger L that had interrupted them, they were rendered dumbfounded as they tried to figure out what they were seeing was friend or foe. However, their question was answered when the machine began to move "Lieutenant Uraki?" Meia saw the crowd below her mobile suit, "LIEUTENANT URAKI! ARE YOU OKAY?" her voice echoed over the external speakers, trying to get a response from the other member of the team she arrived with. That's when the soldiers turned their weapons on the Dagger L piloted by Meia. However the ricocheting bullets weren't her concern at that point, ignoring the small arms fire coming from the Earth Alliance soldiers, Meia carefully scooped up the weakened Extended Combat Coordinator with the Dagger L's hand "He doesn't look too good, I have to get him to the First Aid tent back the forward base." she said to herself, looking over the young man through the main camera.

"I'm...ugh...fine." He said wincing in pain as he willed himself to move, again fumbling for the tablet case again. "Just...get...me to...nrgh..to my machine."

The blue haired young woman shook her head in disdain, he was being stubborn and reckless, just like Hibiki and her old self "YOU'RE NOT FINE! AND YOU'RE IN NO POSITION TO FIGHT IN THAT CONDITION!" Her voice boomed through the machine's external speakers. He didn't have time to argue and found the container and popped the seal and shook out a couple of tablets onto his hand and swallowed them in one gulp. As the medicine started to take effect, he pulled a thin knife from the boot of his pilot suit and drove it into his arm. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Meia said out of shock and horror, she couldn't believe that someone would intentionally stab themselves in the shoulder. As he dug the knife into the wound he had received earlier and found the piece of concrete that had embedded itself, carefully he worked the tip of the blade underneath the chip and began drawing it to the surface, which then flicked out of the open wound with drops of blood following after it.

Tossing aside the bloodied knife, the brunette youth then used his free hand splashed some disinfectant on the wound, gauss, a cotton pad and some medical tape to cover the injury. "I am fine. Now get me to my machine." He replied with a cold tone in his voice that was only matched by the look in his eyes.

The young woman that was piloting the mobile suit gulped audibly and nodded without a word, she couldn't help but wonder what was up with the male before her, she had never met someone who was even more intense than Hibiki. "Hey, Meia! Where are you going?" Jura's face appeared on the blue haired woman's screen. "I found Lieutenant Uraki, I'm taking him back to the main camp," she replied to her blonde haired companion. "Good, hopefully, we can end this mission and get back to the Nirvana after this." The Mejeran said a little grateful for the news.

"Hey! Wait Meia! That means I have to fight these guys on my own! You can't be serious..." The blonde groaned. Unlike their mission on the desert planet, this one was proving to be more difficult because not only was she outnumbered but also she had to deal with enemies in the air that accompanied the ground troops. "What am I? Chopped liver?" Lieutenant Jameson appeared on Jura's monitor after seeing Meia's machine heading away from the combat zone. "You heard that?" She responded with a mix of nervousness and surprise.

The lieutenant stared at the blonde woman with a knowing look, something that sent shivers down her spine. "I did, however, more importantly, why is she headed back towards the rebel's headquarters?" He said with mild concern, the only thing he had heard was Jura complaining about being left to fight on her own. "She found Kazuki Uraki and is taking him back" the Mejeran stated, still feeling a little uneasy about the sudden change of character in Matthew "I see" He mused, casting his gaze to the side and towards the rebel camp. "Is something wrong?" Jura questioned, "No everything is just fine." He replied before closing the channel and ending the conversation immediately, however, no sooner had the window that held the blonde woman's image had closed, then a message had appeared on the combat computer's screen and earned and intrigued, yet chilling smirk from the Buster Dagger's pilot.

With gunfire echoing in the background and an orange hue staining the night sky. Meia's Dagger L walked cautiously through the makeshift forward base of operations and manoeuvred the machine into a kneeling position. Stepping down off of the hand and onto the ground, Kazuki rushed to his waiting machine and bounded up the side of the truck that carried his Mobile Suit. However as he made his way to his machine, the leader of the resistance group ran up to the Coordinator, the man's slender features were scrunched and contorted with frustration "Are you the guy who's piloting this mobile suit? Where the hell have you been?" the middle-aged man demanded to know, only to be completely unnoticed by the pilot. This however only served to irritate the self-appointed leader of the group even further and not wanting to be ignored by someone he considered to a subordinate, the Frenchman climbed the trailer and poked his head into the cockpit of the Enhanced 105 Dagger. "Hey! Listen to me when I am speaking!" He snapped, just as green energy beams began to rain down on their location.

Responding to the sudden attack from the airborne Windams, Meia raised her shield and immediately began returning fire and managed to cripple a few of the attackers. During the confusion, the leader was left shocked and confused on what to do. "I'm heading out," Kazuki said and closed the hatch to the cockpit. Lightly pressing the pedals and moving the controls forward, the trailer groaned as the restraints broke free from the machine and the cables that had been feeding power to the unit were ejected from the plugs located on the back. Once the humanoid machine had completely freed itself from the cradle that had been restraining it, the eyes flashed a bright green signalling that the systems were online and ready for combat operations.

"Hey! I haven't finished-" The Frenchman shouted up at Kazuki's machine in vain before jumping out of the way and narrowly avoided being crushed by one of the falling cables that had been feeding power to the 105 Dagger. Taking a few steps forward there was grating sound as the dull dark grey colours had changed to a black and white colour scheme with white ornate trim. Realising that they had a new enemy to deal with the hostile Windams immediately refocused their attention on Kazuki's unit and fired on his location. Knowing that he was jeopardising the safety of the rebel leader, the coordinator moved to protect the man, using mobile suit's shield to absorb the beam. "Damn it! Shoot them down already!" The Frenchman demanded.

Kazuki didn't need anyone to tell him to begin returning fire, and immediately turned to face the Earth Alliance mobile suits that were destroying the rebel camp."Roger." The verniers on the modified Aile pack, burned white hot as the machine soared into the sky and began firing one of the linear rifles that was embedded in the right shield, disabling the main camera and weapon of a Windam and then fired a rocket anchor from the left hand, capturing it and used the enemy mobile suit like a hammer, striking down a pair of Windams and then moved on to the last trio of airborne enemy units with a MA-M21G Beam Rifle, disabling them with clean efficiency.

After clearing the skies above the rebel base, the Lieutenant pushed the throttle forward and headed towards the centre of Berlin, straight into the thick of the battle. As the fighting continued to rage on, Jura's machine stumbled back as the power in her Dagger L had begun reaching critical levels and the Dagger Buster wasn't fairing any better."What? More enemy reinforcements?" The blonde said in exasperation as alarms inside her cockpit began to go off, signalling the approach of a fast moving object entering the sector.

Jameson furrowed his brow, unable to make sense of the data if it was another Earth Forces unit there was no way that it could be a normal human piloting it. "It's approaching at an unnatural speed!" When the machine finally appeared on the field of battle and stared down the enemy Dagger Ls and Windams, Jameson immediately understood why the Mobile Suit had been moving at speeds that were beyond the specs of a normal Earth Alliance mobile. "Of course, it has to be him..." The Buster Dagger pilot said in disgust.

The Earth Forces that were attempting to suppress the i[rising stood frozen in shocked confusion. "What the hell is that? The rebels have a Slaughter Dagger?" They tried to make sense of the unbelievable speed that the Dagger had been travelling at, the only party they knew of that would operate a machine at such speeds were their own ruthless Phantom Pain unit.

"Impossible! It moves at twice the speed it normally does!" One of the grunts refused to believe that the particular unit in front of him could be used by an extended.

"WHO CARES? SHOOT IT DOWN!" Another shouted, trying to suppress the fear welling up deep inside the pit of his stomach and immediately opened fire on Kazuki's custom mecha. As green energy buffeted the Phase Shift armour, the upgraded 105 Dagger drew a pair of beam sabers from its enhanced Aile pack and charged forward, severing the torso's of two enemy mobile suits, just above their cockpits and sparred the pilots inside. As the unit passed the Earth Alliance Dagger Ls, it came to a halt and flung its arms forward to release a pair of beam sabers. The energy swords travelled through the air, the green blades hummed as they were swept across the battlefield by the rocket anchors of Kazuki's unit and sliced the main camera's and weaponry in half. However he wasn't finished and launched himself into the air and whipped the beam sabers around, again cut the main camera's off of the Jet Dagger Ls and then returned the energy swords to their charging racks, before flying above them and disabled the Jet Striker Packs with his mobile suit's 57mm high-energy beam rifle. As pillars of black smoke arose from the wreckages of the disabled mobile suits and the unharmed pilots ran from the war zone, Meia and Jura just sat in the cockpit's of their own machines completely surprised at what they had just witnessed, all hostiles were either neutralised or in retreat, there were no casualties and minimal collateral damage to the surrounding area. Matthew on the other hand just glared intently at Kazuki's modified 105 Dagger and contemplated in silence about something other than the battle and his comrade's performance.

However, the Extended Combat Coordinator wasn't satisfied with just disabling the combat personnel and knew that in order to eliminate the threat, the head of the serpent had to be removed. "We've lost contact with both the land and air forces, we need to retreat and regroup." One of the Earth Alliance commanders began to panic at how many mobile suits suddenly went dark.

"No! We've been ordered to suppress the resistance here, call for reinforcements." Another protested bitterly, unwilling to admit defeat and face humiliation at how the had lost their position to a bunch of lucky rebels.

A third slammed his fist down hard on a wooden table inside of the radar truck. "Do you actually think the President of the Eurasian or Atlantic Federation will waste any more troops on this pointless endeavour?" The large man stated matter-of-factly. Neither one of the main powers had the resource nor the manpower left to reinforce Berlin, especially since the foolhardy attack on the PLANT homeland was repelled and now had much of their own people up in arms.

"They have to, they can't..."The second commander, refused to believe that their own superiors were simply going to give away valuable territory, however, he became distracted by the sound of an engine the hovered above their vehicle "Is...is that one of ours?" he squinted at the figure that was being silhouetted by the sun with the exception of the eyes which flashed a bright emerald green once it had identified its target.

In what seemed like an instant, a pair of hip-mounted rail cannons rose into position and two beam pistols were drawn from the additional hip mounted storage racks in one swift movement. As the pilot of the 105 Dagger stared expressionlessly at the faces of his targets and pulled the trigger without hesitation, bombarding the Earth Alliance's mobile HQ with beams and slugs turning the area into a hollowed out, glass crater."Earth Alliance officers have been eliminated." After completing his self-appointed task, aimed his machine towards the rebel's main camp 'I am no one's puppet.' He thought to himself, as the conversation from earlier still weighed heavily on Kazuki's mind.

On the outskirts of the capital city of Germany in an abandoned church, the pair of Extended Combat Coordinators that still affiliated themselves with the Earth Alliance had managed to make contact with their group's leader and updated them on their current status."So he still refuses to side with us?" Alpha surmised "Yes and I am afraid that he is quite adamant about not joining us. However, I did manage to obtain a sample like you requested" The dark haired male lifted a vial, that had a few strands of hair in it and shook it."Very well, after you've finished your mission in Ladonia, I want you to return to space immediately." The leader of the small group ordered. "What about Epsilon?" Delta asked, concerned about their wayward companion. "Don't worry about that. I'll be sending Gamma to try and convince him through other means. One way or another he will join us." Seth said with finality and closed the channel, as a leader and a squad commander he knew how to work people and find a weakness in anyone and exploit it.

Ex-Earth Alliance vessel JELLICOE; Location – en route to rendezvous point E32 with the Nirvana.

Finished with their resupplying and after taking on additional supplies for the Nirvana, the JELLICOE rose from its berth at the Copernicus Lunar Base. On the bridge of the Nelson-class Battleship, the elderly male captain of the vessel sat back in his chair and read the report from the alien vessel. "I'm sorry to hear that you were unable to get the information to solve your problem, captain." He apologised to the female captain, lowering the clipboard in his hand and gently pushed it aside.

Magno smiled slightly, not because she appreciated the concern but because of how the other captain was underestimating the Nirvana and her crew. "Oh...you don't need to worry about that, we didn't exactly leave empty handed." She said with a hint of cheek in her voice.

"We received an update from the ZAFT, our team on the ground is just mopping up remaining hostile forces and training select locals to pilot captured mobile suits." Theodore Dupont summarised the report he had received from the PLANT homeland.

Before the captain of the Nirvana could reply, the communication's console began beeping and interrupted the conversation. "Sir! We're receiving a transmission, it's a new contract!" the communication's officer spoke up after reading the new priority message.

The elderly man scratched the scruff of his beard and let out a sigh before continuing."If you'll excuse us, captain." The main monitor then went dark and the captain then released the buckle of his seat belt and floated over to the communication officer's station and looked over his shoulder "Hmm...never expected them to contact us, patch a line through to our forces on the ground and inform the clients that we accept the terms of the contract." No one knew what to make of this recent request and knowing the client's history, it would most likely cause quite a stir with all parties involved in the war.

"Sir I can't get through Lieutenant Jameson." the comm's officer, attempted several times to raise the current ranking officer on the field, however, there was no reply each time.

The captain of the JELLICOE frowned as his bones began to ache, something didn't feel right and it just wasn't his joints. "Pass on the details to the other units then and find out why we've lost contact with Jameson's unit." He ordered, hoping that Kazuki and the others will be able to handle themselves.

Liberator PMC Terrestrial Forces; Location – German/Denmark Boarder

Upon receiving the data transmission from the JELLICOE, the Extended Combat Coordinator immediately opened the message. "The Arch Angel..." It had been a long time since he had heard that name and the last time he had seen it, was during the last war.

As the group continued to traverse the European wilderness, Matthew Jameson stopped in his tracks and drew out the machines beam sabers. "Is something wrong? Wha-?" She was cut short when Jameson's Buster Dagger and cleaved the legs off of Meia's machine and charged forward, making a bee-line towards Kazuki's 105 Dagger.

"MEIA!" Jura called out watching her comrade fall to the ground and frozen in confusion, unable to comprehend why someone who was an ally a moment ago would suddenly turn on them.

As the artillery unit passed Jura without a second glance, Jameson's unit leaped into the air with his beam sabers at the ready to bring down on his prey. "Hey, Kazuki! Be a pal and DIE!" He shouted just before the brown haired pilot blocked the strike, shifting his weight he then blocked a slashing attack aimed at his midsection and knocked his former comrade back and lunged for the Buster Dagger's main camera, however, his attack had been countered by the Natural. "HA! TOO PREDICTABLE! What?" The sniper failed to realize the attack at the main camera was a feint and lost one of the Buster Dagger's arm, "Hmph...no reason to stick around anymore." The dark haired male knew that the battle was soon going to end up with him losing more than his mobile suit's arm and set the Buster Dagger's auto-destruct.

Seeing his former comrade exit from the artillery unit and making a break for it, Kazuki soon realized what was happening and moved to Meia's side and raised the shield her unit had been carrying and used it to protect both the Mejeran woman and himself. "USE YOUR SHIELD!" He shouted to the other female in the group.

"Ah...Right!" She didn't know what this was about but followed his lead anyway and she was lucky that she had, a moment later and she wouldn't be alive to tell the tale.

"I guess we're even now," Meia said letting out a sigh of relief, however after looking at everyone's machine the grim reality of their situation dawned on her. Even if Jura's and Kazuki's machine escaped the explosion without harm, their units would be low on energy. "But now our machines are too damaged or depleted to continue," she said in a low and serious tone.

"So what are we going to do now?" The blonde woman complained bitterly, she hated the grim situation that they were in and has had enough of fighting on the ground and wanted to get back to the safety of the Nirvana.

Meia had already begun to think of ways to remedy the situation. "We could-" however her voice had been drowned out by Kazuki's thoughts as he focused on the words on his screen. "You should have killed me when you had the chance." These were the last words he received from Matthew Jameson, did they represent an omen of things to come or something else completely entirely

Ending – Reason By Nami Tamaki

A past that had been stolen, a future that had been deprived and a meeting that should never have happened. This is the realisation that Kazuki comes too as he meets the souls who fought so hard for peace during the last war. As the world is plunged into chaos, betrayal is met with more betrayal. Next on Vandread SEED Destiny: What Was Lost. Awaken Freedom and soar towards the promised land.